2016 was an important year for the organisation, consolidating our continued rapid expansion and extension of reach. With the Sustainable Development Goals now approved, including a target dedicated to ending organized crime, it has never been more important that a more nuanced, creative and diverse response to be employed to counter the threat that organized crime represents to human security and the integrity of states. Our mandate – to work towards the building blocks of a global strategy to counter transnational crime – has become increasingly pertinent. We advance using both thematic and geographic approaches, undertaking catalytic research, analysing, supporting policy development and piloting innovative responses, and it has been rewarding to see this approach gain traction.

On some of the most pressing contemporary organized crime and illicit trade issues, the Global Initiative has come to the fore as a pre-eminent source of expertise. For example, as states and the multi-lateral system have struggled to understand and respond to the role of smugglers in Europe’s ‘migration crisis’, the Global Initiative has provided the most up-to-date and far-reaching analysis, looking not only at the size of the market and its structure, but also the political economy behind the trade, and the potential threat that it can pose to stability and development for the countries along the main migration routes. We have been asked to provide policy advice and guidance to the combined EU Ambassadors of Africa and Europe, the EU Parliament, the United Nations, as well as to a number of individual donor states. Given the global nature of the challenge, this endeavour has drawn widely on the resources in the Global Initiative Network of Experts, truly showcasing the value of our approach.The Annual Report highlights our activities in the areas: